Soft Launch: Online New Student Orientation

From: Hepworth, Erica N <erica.hepworth@montgomerycollege.edu>
Date: Monday, November 9, 2020 at 9:05 AM

As we’ve discussed, a subgroup of the Orientation for First-Year Students Taskforce has been working since June 2019 with our online orientation vendor, Advantage Design Group (ADG) to update, enhance, and merge our existing Online New Student Orientation, Academic Orientation, and Advising Questionnaire into one comprehensive Online New Student Orientation for incoming students. This work is a component of our Student Affairs Master Plan (StAMP) initiative 3: Orientation For First-Year Students; it also supports StAMP Initiative 1: Pre-Admission Outreach and Onboarding Processes as well as our institutional initiatives pertaining to onboarding with Achieving The Dream (ATD) and the College’s Student Success Network (SSN).

I am excited to share that the Online New Student Orientation was successfully launched over the weekend! The new domain name for the Online New Student Orientation is: studentorientation.montgomerycollege.edu and the short URL is montgomerycollege.edu/nso.

A few important things to know when working with students:

• The old online NSO and Academic Orientation as well as the Advising Questionnaire links have been repointed or redirected to the new NSO domain name.
• Students should only have access to the updated orientation and should not be able to access the old orientations or the AQ.
• The Advising Questionnaire (AQ) Hold in SOAHOLD has been removed (or set to ‘expired’).
• Since the Advising Questionnaire is now embedded in the Online New Student Orientation, this hold is no longer necessary.
• The New Student Orientation (OR) Hold in SOAHOLD has been temporarily removed for the Winter and Spring 2021 semesters.
• This gives us time to troubleshoot any issues with the rollout of the updated Online New Student Orientation.
• We will likely resume use of the orientation hold for students registering for Summer and/or Fall 2021.
• The updated NSO still provides students with their placement results within the orientation and they are listed on their certificate of completion at the end.
• If you’re meeting with students who have completed placement and the NSO, you can help us by spot checking to see if the placements shared in their orientation matches their placements in SOATEST in Banner.
• Banner should still display a comment indicating that the student has completed their online NSO.
• If you’re meeting with students who have completed the NSO and you do not see a Banner comment indicating this, please alert us.
• The NSO still determines which track the student is assigned, based on their highest placement:
• EMAP – ENGL101 Track
• DMAP – IERW Track
• IMAP – ELAP Track
• CE Track

Other things to know as they relate to the soft launch of the updated NSO:

• The Raptor Reference Card that incoming students receive outlining their onboarding steps is currently being updated to reflect:
• Students only have to complete one Online New Student Orientation [after completing or submitting placement] and;
• After completing the NSO they are strongly encouraged to meet with a counselor.
• We will be updating the websites and marketing materials that mention any of the orientations, AQ, etc. as quickly as we can over the next few weeks.
• We will be adding additional quiz questions to the NSO as well as editing some of the questions on the embedded AQ over the coming weeks.
• Once we’ve updated the websites, added the quiz questions, and updated the AQ – we will work with IT on transferring students completed AQ responses into Starfish as an attachment for Counselors to review before their first meeting with the student.
• You are encouraged to login and complete the updated NSO, it should take you approximately 30 – 45 minutes.
• studentorientation.montgomerycollege.edu
• We can make text changes to slides (cannot change audio at this time), we can add slides, etc. and make real time edits as necessary. Please alert us if you notice necessary edits.
• Right after this, I will communicate with front line areas that work directly with incoming students (Recruitment, Raptor Central, Dual Enrollment, etc.), to alert them of this transition and that students will only need to complete the one orientation moving forward.
• A communication to the broader College community will be forthcoming, once we finish most of the aforementioned tasks.
• We can discuss further at our discipline meeting this Thursday, November 12^th.

If you meet with students that are experiencing any challenges relating to the soft launch of the Online New Student Orientation, please email me, Linda Robinson, and Jessica Present.

One additional note, since the orientation will default to the EMAP, if you complete it and do not have placement information in Banner, you can review any of the tracks: EMAP, DMAP, IMAP, CE – by visiting these test site links:

EMAP:

https://connector-montgomerycollege.adgorientation.com/?netId=1212121&fn=Test-EMAP&ln=TestLN&em=1212121@montgomerycollege.edu&st=EMAP&rp=IMAP_2&ep=EMAP_2&mp=MATH_2&sp=IMAP_3

IMAP:

https://connector-montgomerycollege.adgorientation.com/?netId=1212122&fn=Test-IMAP&ln=TestLN&em=1212122@montgomerycollege.edu&st=IMAP&rp=IMAP_2&ep=EMAP_2&mp=MATH_2&sp=IMAP_3

DEV-EMAP:

https://connector-montgomerycollege.adgorientation.com/?netId=1212123&fn=Test-DEMAP&ln=TestLN&em=1212123@montgomerycollege.edu&st=DEV-EMAP&rp=IMAP_2&ep=EMAP_2&mp=MATH_2&sp=IMAP_3

CE:

https://connector-montgomerycollege.adgorientation.com/?netId=1212124&fn=Test-CE&ln=TestLN&em=1212124@montgomerycollege.edu&st=CE&rp=IMAP_2&ep=EMAP_2&mp=MATH_2&sp=IMAP_3

Academic Orientation FAQs

Banner SPACMNT – Academic Orientation Key

EMAP	Students placing into ENGL101A, ENGL101 or above
IMAP	Students placing into ELAP courses
D-EMAP	Students placing into IERW courses
CE-ESL	Students placing into CE-ESL classes
EMAP no  course placements found*	Students who have done the orientation prior to the scores appearing

* Note:  The system defaults to the EMAP track if it cannot find placements.

When a student attempts to do the orientation track prior to waiting the required number of days for course placements to go in the system or before taking the test, the student is allowed to see the orientation but on the screen where the placements show up midway through the orientation, it will show a message that says “no course placements found” and there is a link that the student is instructed to click that identifies the possible reasons why there are no course placements with instructions on what to do in those cases. The student can log in again, once course placements are in the system and get the correct track and get course placements if they have followed the proper steps the second time around.

The New Online Orientation - FAQs

When will it start?

1.        Accuplacer ESL test takers  will be directed to the academic online orientation starting October 30, 2017. Accuplacer test takers and new students submitting college ready level scores on SAT, ACT, TOEFL and IELTS have been directed to new academic orientation  since late July 2017.

How is the academic orientation accessed?

2.       It is accessible through the student’s MYMC account.  A link labeled Academic Orientation is located under the heading “New Students” on the homepage.

How does it work?

3.       When the student logs on the academic orientation it automatically accesses the student’s SOATEST data from Banner and the student will be presented with the appropriate orientation track based on their course placement. There are four orientation tracks: EMAP for students placing into ENGL 101 or higher, D-EMAP for students placing into developmental English, IMAP for students placing into ELAP courses, or CE-ESL for students testing into the CE-ESL program. While the EMAP, D-EMAP and IMAP share similar content, each of those tracks has several slides that are unique to those populations. The CE-ESL track has information specific to that population. The orientation presents material in a multimodal format, using audio, video and text content. Closed captioning for audio and video is available and the format  is ADA complaint.

What about course placement information?

4.       The academic orientation has five modules. The course placements are presented in the fourth module and include an explanation of the placement.

How can I see it?

5.       Counselors and staff that want to view the academic orientation can see the EMAP version by logging into their own MYMC account.

How many times can a student view it? Does it update test results?

6.       A student may view the content as many times as needed. The course placement information is refreshed in the system on a daily basis so therefore should a student retest or submit new scores for an SAT or ACT TOEFL, or IELTS they will be able to see that updated course placement by logging on again.  Please note, the orientation has NOT yet been programmed to show placements based on APPE and APPM notations in Banner at this time.

Is there a waiting time for course placements to show up in the orientation after testing?

7.       Yes, if the student takes the regular Accuplacer test at MC they must wait 48 hours for the course placements to be visible on the orientation. For students taking the Accuplacer ESL, it may take as long as 10 days before they can log in and see their scores. Because the ELAP committee has to score the tests and get that data into Banner and that turnaround time may vary depending on the time of year, Accuplacer ESL test takers will receive instructions from Assessment Center staff with the exact date their score will be viewable on the orientation.

What if the student logs on before  their course placement data is in Banner?

8.       If a student logs on before course placements are in Banner, the system will default to the EMAP track and no placement results will show up. The orientation includes several warnings to students to wait the prerequisite time before logging on. Students who complete the orientation without receiving placements will be able to log back in after the appropriate time and see their placements.

What will the student receive after they complete the orientation?

9.       After the student completes all the orientation modules,  he or she will be able to print a certificate of completion with course placements listed. The certificate is also sent to the student’s MC email address. If the student logs in and does not complete the entire orientation in one sitting, they can log back in again and start where they left off. A reminder email is sent to those students who have started but not completed the orientation.

How will a counselor or staff person know that they student has completed the online academic orientation?

After a student completes the orientation, a notation will show up on Banner’s General Comment Screen so that counselors and MC staff will be able to verify which specific track the student has completed. It should be noted that if the student has logged on BEFORE assessment results are available, the system defaults to the EMAP track and thus the notation in Banner cannot be relied upon to correctly identify the placement. The possible notations on the general comment screen are: EMAP, D-EMAP, IMAP, CE-ESL.

        After the student completes the orientation, what will they need to do?

10.   The orientation directs the student to make an appointment with a counselor for guidance with first semester course planning and confirmation of their course placement. The three counseling departments are in the process of implementing small group advising sessions that will be offered to incoming students during peak times.  At this time, we expect that small group sessions will be offered to students that take the Accuplacer ESL test from mid-December through late January. All others, students taking the regular Accuplacer or showing qualifying SAT, ACT, TOEFL or IELTS scores will be expected to make a regular Counseling appointment. 

New EMAP Ready to Launch!

It is with a great deal of excitement that I write to alert you that the new online academic orientation is ready to launch. As you know the old EMAP was out of date and was in need of extensive updating. The old version will no longer be accessible in lieu of this new version.  Please note that the old link, will redirect students to the new version. So, we do not have to rush to update our documents to facilitate the transition. Your counseling colleagues, Jessica Present and Linda Robinson, have worked diligently with the vendor ADG and with IT to successfully pilot the EMAP this summer. Kudos to them for tackling this complex endeavor. The new EMAP is currently accessible to students and you may have already noticed some students coming in with their new certificates. Students who have taken the Accuplacer will be directed to the New Academic Orientation link that is found on the homepage of the student’s MYMC account.

Although the online IMAP is also ready, that option will not be made available to Accuplacer ESL test takers until the fall. IMAPs will continue for the remainder of the summer.

Additional notes for Counselors:

·         The new online academic orientation certificate contains placement information and next steps.

·         Counselors can check (for students who do not have certificates) that the online orientation has been completed by looking in the comments section in Banner.     

·         Please remember that alternative placements (APPE/APPM) are not yet coded into the orientation so, always check Banner for test scores.

·         Please note that if a student logs onto the orientation too soon (prior to 48 hours after Accuplacer testing) or has no test scores in the system, the system will direct that student to the “default” information for the English 101 placement, but will not show placement. So, always verify the correct placement in Banner.

Any IT related questions should be directed to the IT Help Desk as usual. Other questions about the EMAP can be directed to Jessica Present and Linda Robinson.

Best regards,

Tonya R. Mason, Ph.D.

Collegewide Dean for Student Success

and Rockville Student Affairs

Montgomery College

Rockville Campus, 605 Macklin Tower

Rockville, MD 20850

(240) 567-5052 (VM)

(240) 567-5028 (Fax)